Damage of ductile materials deforming under multiple plastic or viscoplastic mechanisms

This work presents a model to represent ductile failure (i.e. failure controlled by nucleation, growth and coalescence) of materials whose irreversible deformation is controlled by several plastic or viscoplastic deformation mechanisms. In addition work hardening may result from both isotropic and kinematic hardening. Damage is represented by a single variable representing void volume fraction. The model uses an additive decomposition of the plastic strain rate tensor. The model is developed based on the definition of damage dependant effective scalar stresses. The model is first developed within the generalized standard material framework and expressions for Helmholtz free energy, yield potential and dissipation potential are proposed. in absence of void nucleation, the evolution of the void volume fraction is governed by mass conservation and damage does not need to be represented by state variables. The model is extended to account for void nucleation. It is implemented in a finite element software to perform structural computations. The model is applied to three case studies: (i) failure by void growth and coalescence by internal necking (pipeline steel) where plastic flow is either governed by the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman model or the Thomason model, (ii) creep failure (Grade 91 creep resistant steel) where viscoplastic flow is controlled by dislocation creep or diffusional creep and (iii) ductile rupture after pre-compression (aluminum alloy) where kinematic hardening plays an important role. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.